Matthias

Well spotted, that's definitely a good sign!

Sure, cameras won't be difficult to spot. Microphones are always present (though for 'proper' recordings some mics are usually added), so I'm sure it will be recorded in some way, though not necessarily meant for release. Maybe we'll get a "look what we found in our archives"-type of release some years from now. 😉 A full production would be better, of course.

Beautiful day today in Vienna. I wish us all a wonderful concert! 🙂 15:30 CET https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca_-lyZq5On/?utm_medium=copy_link

Yes, this is one of the cool things about the Musikverein. Especially during Sunday concerts at noon, the sun sometimes breaks through the clouds at just the right moment, illuminating the hall - a special atmosphere.

Rehearsal pics from the Vienna Philharmonic: (there are more pictures of the orchestra, I'm not posting all of them) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca9uaQgqUWJ/?utm_medium=copy_link Matthias Schorn on the clarinet and Sophie Dervaux on the bassoon. 🤩

Not to be outdone, world-renowned flutist casually snaps pictures of JW during rehearsal. First sighting of ASM. https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca78w1egM9j/?utm_medium=copy_link

I'm somewhere in the back of the Parterre on the right on Saturday. Edit: Parterre left actually

Oh, you are totally right!

I think they wouldn't rearrange seating for an encore. Would be lovely, though.

One of the best harpists in the world chimes in: https://instagram.com/stories/anneleenlenaerts/2790927127103513244 Looks like they moved her to the front - best seat in the house. 😉 Maybe for the violin concerto? The harp plays a prominent role in that one. No ASM in sight, though.

Another rehearsal pic: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca7NFSEAxdk/?utm_medium=copy_link JW looking slightly befuddled at, let's guess, the oboes? The hornist also writes that this is a "personal highlight" for him. The previous post was also from a hornist - they seem to be really loving JW. 😁

Short observations: The Imperial March clip is obviously from a different space, the Glass Hall at the Musikverein, indicating that there have already been 2 rehearsals today. The concertmaster is veteran Volkhard Steude. Last time, a rookie concertmaster had to lead the orchestra, he's not with the VPO anymore.

The first JW sighting! More rehearsal footage: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca5CsMugqQW/?utm_medium=copy_link 275512059_1109177956526502_1059579523691467492_n.mp4 275208843_721772152171047_9080808726788402950_n.mp4 There will be encores, let the speculations begin! 😁 One of them is Imperial March, obviously...

I've been wondering about that as well. Maybe they have the entire "Star Wars Suite for Orchestra" score there, of which Throne Room is the final part. Yes, they are always there.

You didn't miss too much. No sighting of a JW in the wild yet. 😉 Edit: The way carlborg did it is much better. 😅 How do you embed these instagram stories? (okay, I think I figured out a way to do it)

https://instagram.com/stories/viennaphilharmonic/2790025829692922431 1st rehearsal! Looks like they are doing at least a proper 3 rehearsals this time. 😉 Still a lot of new material to go over.

Thank you! It said it was unavailable in my country (Austria), but I got it working with a French VPN.

Does anyone know if there is a recording of the violin concerto still floating around the web somewhere? I'd like to listen to it again before the concert. Saw a bunch of Philharmoniker loitering in front of the Opera today - hype levels are rising! 😅

This may seem unfair, but consider that here in Vienna, we have been deprived of the majesty of Dirk Brossé's conducting for decades now. He has written a nice little piece as a tribute to Vienna though, which makes us all a little less depressed about our complete lack of Brossé: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/HYZFv

Yay, managed to snatch a ticket for Saturday! 😊

What exciting news! 🙂 Does anyone know whether the BPO streams every single concert program on their Digital Concert Hall?

Amazing that the album made it to the top of the Austrian DVD charts despite it not being released on DVD! Williams working miracles again! 😅

Yeah, you're right, the lack of rehearsals makes the idea of throwing substitutes in there without a strong core of Philharmoniker sound even crazier! You're right, we can't let Covid take our balls away! 😬

Well, the orchestra has commissioned him to write a new fanfare for the annual VPO ball, so I think it is quite likely that JW will attend the ball when it is premiered and maybe even conduct the opening (that's perhaps less likely, but who knows - Blomstedt conducted it this year and he's even older than Williams). But who knows when there will be balls again in Vienna... And I thought that after the overture there was only noise in Rheingold anyway! 😅 To be serious, I knew that the opera was getting the short end of the stick in the arrangement with the VPO, but I didn't know it could be this bad! 😳 I've mostly seen them in concert (somehow 5 times already in this crazy year) and I think I've always seen familiar faces pretty much everywhere except in the periphery of the string sections. Then again, the types of concerts that I like to attend typically don't feature a big Wagnerian brass section. Mistakes-wise, the JW concert was the worst I've heard them, though I don't think it was bad at all, especially since they really played inspired. My issues are usually with the interpretation instead, though cohesion can also be a problem - even in core repertoire.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that there is such a thing as a Philharmoniker "A-Team". Yes, this is a large orchestra that even regularly plays two performances at the same time (for instance one in the opera and one in the Musikverein or on tour) and they do use substitutes to fill out the string section in these cases. However, the vast majority of the players (including most importantly the principals) are always going to be Philharmoniker. It‘s no different here. The huge brass section seems to be there completely even, they had to mobilize everyone for JW‘s music. 😅 IMHO, the only place where the cast of these concerts was sub-par is the concertmaster. The VPO has 4 concertmasters and they often use 2 in concerts. Here, they used only one, Fedor Rudin, and he‘s still very young and inexperienced (he‘s only been with the orchestra for slightly more than a year). The poor guy looked visibly stressed during the concerts. I can’t help but think that someone like Volkhard Steude (probably my favorite of the 4 concertmasters) would‘ve smoothed out some of the communication issues between orchestra and conductor and kept everything more together. But for the most part, I think the issues that arose were due to the orchestra not being familiar with some of the pieces, not because the players weren’t the best the VPO has to offer. Sadly, even the VPO isn’t immune to that.